The Singing and Acting Handbook: Games and Exercises for the Performer, and: The Power of One: The Solo Play for Playwrights, Actors and Directors (review)

The Singing and Acting Handbook: Games and Exercises for the Performer. By Thomas de Mallet Burgess and Nicholas Skilbeck. London: Routledge, 2000; pp. 203. $19.95.

The Power of One: The Solo Play for Playwrights, Actors and Directors. By Louis E. Catron. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2000; pp. 233. $18.95.

Directors, actors, and teachers are constantly exploring new and better ways to integrate the singer and the performer. Thomas de Mallet Burgess and Nicholas Skilbeck's The Singing and Acting Handbook: Games and Exercises for the Performer does just that. The text has two distinct sections; a brief introductory chapter, and a broad based, intensive, exercise section, broken into five units.

The introduction covers, in a clear and concise fashion, the relationship of the performer to the spoken and the musical text. It also explores the history of the development of music/singing, using a speculative approach, from its beginnings to the present. Through this exploration, the authors develop the rationale for their text: "It is the absence of a codified system of rules for performance in Western Theatre that the need for practical work such as our own arises in the first place" (13). This assumption leads the authors to remind the performer, as well, that it is his/her responsibility "for the relationship between your character's music, text, and movement at any point in the performance . . . The choices you make will directly affect the relationships other performers are creating between music, text, and movement" (13). The performer is also encouraged to avoid a "superficial" or a "one dimensional" appearance that is necessary to integrate all elements of the character: music, text, and movement. This is an area where performers in the musical theatre all too often fall short. The Handbook outlines the fundamental disciplines that are familiar to all teachers of acting: relaxation, fitness, flexibility and control, concentration, awareness and imagination, and spontaneity. To this list the authors add for the singer: voice production, rhythm and pulse, diction and the appreciation of words, and characterization (15-16).

"Part Two" leads the performer through a series of nearly one hundred and twenty exercises; many the reader will recognize from other acting texts. Beginning with simple relaxation techniques, the exercises relate to the disciplines cited in the introduction. What I found particularly interesting and helpful were those dealing with music and its relationship to the text and the spoken word. Here the exercises not only help the performer interpret the music and the score, but also blend it with the development of character. Every performer's goal is consistency and these exercises will allow the actor/singer to achieve that goal. The authors provide a number of suggestions and samples of music to use while working and developing the techniques illustrated in the text.

This book is both interesting and informative and its exercises are easily understood, supporting many forms of performance techniques and helpful for the singer and the non-singer alike. The novice will find ways to approach text and score and to gain a better understanding and insight into the performance process. Skilled or veteran performers will enjoy finding new and different ways to address music in performance. Teachers of acting and musical theatre performance will find the book a useful supplement.

Louis Catron has followed his successful playwriting texts: Playwriting: Writing Producing and Selling Your Play (Waveland, 1990) and The Elements of Playwriting (Longman, 1994) with another informative work, The Power of One: The Solo Play for Playwrights, Actors, and Directors. His latest work explores the history and the development of the "monodrama" and provides some insight into the development of "solo" scripts for production. As the title suggests, this text is not intended just for the playwright, but for anyone (writer, performer, designer, or...